A vast number of systems, computer devices, consumer products, electronic devices, and other components rely upon data communication for day-to-day operation. For example, data is often shared among computers in many various forms. One popular form that facilitates information sharing is known as the client-server model, which is commonly realized as a client-server paradigm. In a client-server network, a server application or device fulfills requests from any number of client applications or devices. Servers often manage the storage of vast amounts of data, to which one or many client applications have access. As another example, modern wireless devices (e.g., a laptop computer, a cellular telephone, a handheld video game device, or a digital media player) support wireless data communication with other wireless devices, desktop computers, wireless local area network (WLAN) infrastructure components, and the like. Fundamentally, any form of data communication between two devices can only take place if the two devices are compatible with each other. In other words, both devices must support a common data communication scheme to successfully carry out data communication.
It may be possible for two devices to support multiple data connection modes, protocols, or techniques that are used to establish a data communication session between the two devices. The use of alternative connection modes, protocols, and/or techniques may be desirable to increase the likelihood of successful data communication sessions, to provide different levels of service to users, to provide redundancy or backup communication channels, or the like. In a system that supports multiple data connection modes, it may be necessary for one or both devices to attempt to initiate data communication sessions using a plurality of different protocols or techniques before data communication can be performed between the two devices.